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President Donald Trump’s Tuesday State of the Union largely was aimed at keeping his Make America Great Again base on board. An Economist/YouGov poll from Feb. 13-26 found 93% MAGA backing, an erosion from 95% on Feb. 6-9, but still strong. The problem is a CNN/SSRS poll for Feb. 17-20 found just 36% overall approval,…
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By Michael Liedtke | The Associated Press Samsung on Wednesday unveiled its latest Galaxy smartphones, which boast an even bigger toolbox of artificial intelligence technology than the previous two generations and introduce a new privacy shield mode that blocks snoopy bystanders from sneaking a peek at the display screen. The upgrades on the Galaxy S26 lineup…
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Metallica is headed to the desert. The heavy metal icons have officially announced their Life Burns Faster residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas. The eight-show run is set for Oct. 1 and 3, 15 and 17, 22 and 24, and 29 and 31 and will continue the band’s No Repeat Weekend tradition first introduced…
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By MICHELLE L. PRICE and ALI SWENSON WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President JD Vance announced Wednesday that the Trump administration would “temporarily halt” some Medicaid funding to the state of Minnesota over fraud concerns, as part of what he described as an aggressive crackdown on misuse of public funds. Related Articles Bill Gates ‘spoke candidly’…
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There’s something creepy about department store mannequins. They’ve been making people uneasy in retail establishments and freaking out moviegoers on film and television screens since the 1960s.  But author Stephen Graham Jones puts an interesting spin on this horror trope in his novella, “Night of the Mannequins.”   “They’re off-putting and disconcerting,” he said during a…
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A stepson of “El Mencho,” the head of what is considered Mexico’s most powerful drug cartel who was killed by that country’s army over the weekend, was born in Santa Ana, federal officials say. Juan Carlos Valencia Gonzalez was born on  Sept. 12, 1984, making him 41 years old with United States and Mexican citizenship,…
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Candidate for governor Tom Steyer has decided to pitch his campaign tent on the “third rail” of California politics, an attack on Proposition 13. However, he’s mangling the facts about the tax-limiting initiative by asserting that it allows corporations, and President Donald Trump, to sell fractions of ownership and thereby evade reassessment of long-held property.…
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By GLENN GAMBOA and JAMES POLLARD Bill Gates addressed his connection to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and “took responsibility for his actions” during a town hall meeting of his nonprofit Gates Foundation on Tuesday, the nonprofit said. Related Articles Vance says administration is pausing some Medicaid funding to Minnesota because of fraud concerns Trump’s…
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Three longtime KTLA on-air personalities were laid off on Wednesday as part of a wave of job cuts at television stations owned by Nexstar in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. Meteorologist Mark Kriski had been at KTLA since 1991 as the weekday morning news weathercaster. He was the original meteorologist when the station created…
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BY MARK KENNEDY NEW YORK (AP) — Sondra Lee, a dancer and actor discovered by the legendary choreographer-director Jerome Robbins and originated the role of Tiger Lily on Broadway in “Peter Pan” and played Minnie Fay in the original production of “Hello, Dolly!,” has died. She was 97. Related Articles Harvey Weinstein hires Luigi Mangione…
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